Review into ACC announced, levies to increase

The ACC minister has announced an independent review into the agency, saying he had concerns with its performance.

Matt Doocey said rehabilitation rates were down, and weekly compensation costs and average costs per claim were up.

"This review will have a particular focus on claims management. It will look at whether ACC has the right interventions and settings in place to support accident claimants to return to independence as quickly as possible," Doocey said.

He would also work with the ACC board and MBIE to strengthen performance monitoring at the entity.

At the same time, Doocey has announced the earners and business levy was having to increase by up to 5 percent a year for three years, to meet the costs of the scheme.

Levies paid by motor vehicles were also increasing by five percent, plus an inflation adjustment per year, for three years.

In dollar terms, it means an employee on a median full-time wage of $70,000, currently paying a levy of $973, will pay $42 more in 2025-26, $49 in 2026-27, and $49 again in 2027-28.

A 500cc motorcycle owner currently paying $297.91 will have an increase of $23.26 in 2025-26, $121.01 in 2026-27, and $90.71 in 2027-28. Discounts will be applied if the owner completes a Ride Forever course.

"At the time of consultation, I made it very clear to ACC that I didn't want levies used by default as the only lever to be pulled around improving their fiscal sustainability," Doocey said on Thursday.

He said a recent restructure would deploy around 250 new frontline workers, and ACC was moving to a one-to-one case management approach would drive up rehabilitation rates, but the review would give him more confidence everything was being done to return ACC to financial sustainability.

"I want to seek assurance that the settings and the interventions that are being put in place will deliver to improve rehabilitation rates," he said.

ACC said it welcomed the review to ensure it had the right work in place to tackle the costs and performance challenges it faced.

Chief executive Megan Main said more people were receiving weekly compensation and remaining on the scheme with non-serious injuries.

Levies and funding had not kept pace with the increases to costs of rehabilitation and care services.

"The decision by Cabinet to increase levies will go some way to alleviating the pressure and ensuring the scheme is sustainable for future generations. However, improving rehabilitation performance is a priority for ACC," she said.

"We have intensified our efforts on the things we can do to improve client rehabilitation performance in the short term and are seeing positive green shoots from this work - but the impact of this will take time."

Labour said the levy increases would hurt working people, who were already doing it tough with the cost of living.

"I do agree there needs to be an improved performance in terms of rehabilitation, but the biggest driver of the cost of ACC is the increases that we've seen to injuries, and the government has cut programmes and roles related to injury prevention," Labour's ACC spokesperson Rachel Boyack said.

In September, Doocey had said ACC needed to lift its own performance before charging taxpayers more.

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